Buncombe County News

This news item expired on 8/31/2013, so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.

Register of Deeds Protects Citizens Against Identity Theft

The Buncombe County Register of Deeds Office consistently works to improve records accessibility, transparency and security. In 2009, State Law required that all social security numbers and driver's license numbers be removed from documents recorded and made public online. Drew Reisinger, Buncombe County Register of Deeds, and his staff have gone above and beyond this requirement by deleting social security numbers and driver’s license numbers from all Buncombe County online recorded documents.

This redaction project included over 6.1 million records that were reviewed in under seven months. Of these records, the staff identified 16,098 documents that contained sensitive information, which have now been omitted from the county’s online record database. “This project was important so that private information recorded in these documents will not be readily accessed by anyone with a computer anywhere in the world. This is an additional measure of security and peace of mind for the citizens of Buncombe County” stated Reisinger.

This effort aims to prevent identity theft for Buncombe County residents.